Survivor Mentality
by ShivaVixen
Summary: Spitfire's a human girl, who's given up on being wanted by someone. Midnight's a minicon that doesn't want to fight or be found. Maybe together they'll stand a chance in the world. First Tranformers fic, set in Armada.
1. Somebody to Somebody

**Somebody to Somebody**

The girl with brown hair dyed with different colored streaks watched her gang celebrate another victory. She couldn't help but fell disgusted at how low the actual victory was, two of the more idiotic guys had held their victim down as her leader had beaten him. The red streak fell into her eyes. The fallen, the leader of another gang, had given up his territory. And two of his own men had joined with them.

"Spitfire, you thinkin' again?" She glanced up at her leader. He hadn't started drinking yet.

"It's not much of a victory, we only gained a block and two more men. That other gang we keep havin' to retreat from still has twice our numbers, and we're spreading ourselves to thin. They'll pick us off if we don't get more recruits." 'Spitfire' as her leader had named her, focused on his eyes. "Omega, we need more recruits, that little cretin you have as our recruiter keeps bringing in runawaya and posers, they wouldn't last a night on the streets, especially in a gang fight."

"Hmm, maybe your right . . . but that's not much to worry 'bout now." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Your my second in comand, you supervise gathering recruits, Spider's got to respect you too."

"Only if I break his arm." She glanced away. Omega only really understood beating people up, and getting things his own way. Spitfire was only like her namesake when she was mad and in a fight, the rest of the time, she was silent.

"Then do it. You're my righthand man! Don't be weak!" His arm was off her shoulders and his fist hit her face in a flash. "I won't tolerate you slacking off!"

" . . ." _Aw, hell, he's high. _for some reason he got violent when he was high. After a few more seconds of him hitting her, he stomped off, then was drawn back into the celebration, leaving her to nurse a split lip and soon to be black eye. "Don't be weak, huh? I wonder if you noticed I don't cry anymore, that I can't even scream or yell anymore."

"Hey, Spitfire, you okay? Did one of the guys get you?" Another older boy, playing with a lighter, slipped up. One of the newbies who'd been dubbed, thanks to the fact Omega gave names to his gang members and had just read an X men comic he'd found in the garbage, Pyro.

"I'm fine, Pyro . . . what do you want?"

"Just wondering, can you bend metal? Heard from Sneaker you were psychic." Spitfire rolled her eyes. Trust Sneaker to start blabbing to the newbies about why she was the second in comand.

"I can sense metal, and to a certain extent see things before they happen, so yes. But I can't control metal, otherwise I'd probably be called Metallica, or something." She glanced at him. "I'd stop playing with your lighter-"

"OW!" Pyro almost dropped it, he'd burned himself. "Did you predict that?"

"No, I just figured that out, My main function, other than controlling the gang when Omega is gone, is to figure out which battles will be won, or lost."

"Oh . . . so why 'Spitfire'?"

"Because that's the nickname an old man gave me, refering to the fact I didn't restrain my thoughts on people, and was rather emotional." She gave the same talk she gave to every new member, who knew of her power. "I amused him alot. Omega was there, and he started to call me that, stuck ever since."

"Ah, so what's your real name?" He never saw the hit coming. In a few seconds, he was down on the ground, Her foot on his throat.

"If you want to know, I'll whisper it as you die." She made eye contact with him. "The only one that knows is Omega, and it'll stay that way. Besides," She leaned close. "You're part of this gang, Your real name is no longer your true name, Pyro. You lose it when you join." She rmoved her foot. "Now go join the group, and don't bother me unless it's something important." He quickly moved away from her, scared. Then he forgot about it as soon as he grabbed a beer and started burning things in the trashcan fire they had going.

She stayed on the outskirts, watching the guys party. She was the only female of the gang, and therefore, one of the most ruthless. She watched everyone eventually stumble off to home, then she started walking away. But not to her house, that place wasn't home, anymore than the streets were. Her mother was either dead or locked up somewhere, she didn't understand what her father had tried to tell her when she was five, as for her father, he was either drunk and abusive, or sound asleep/away at whatever odd job he had now. She headed into the junkyard, having made friends with the dogs that guarded it. Bored, she wandered through it to her hideout, a car that was more rust than metal, couldn't even get picked up by the giant magnet thing, (she never asked what it was called) and passed it.

"What's that?" She heard a ringing in her head, like a persistent call for help. She took a step forward, and it increased. She followed it, and soon found a lead container, shaped similar to a locker or cabinent, with a small hole for air or something, which she opened. A Marble statue of a sobbing woman stared out at her, She stepped closer only to hear the door swing shut, making her panic a little.

_FFFFfreeeeee . . . _Warily, she took a thick metal pole, and started to smash it. Eventually, she uncovered a shiny, almost glowing, green shield w/ a M on it. She freed it, and then, with her headache suddenly increasing, sent . . . she wasn't sure how to describe it, was it her thoughts? or was it just wishing the pain away? in any case, she did something, and the shield turned into a minirobotic looking thing. "What the-" Big blue optics blinked at her.

-Hi . . .- She blinked realizing it was talking to her. -I'm . . . I'm . . .- The little robot was about a foot high, all of the metal was in a sort of rounded and streamline shape, and he was colored black, or so she guessed, it was kinda dark in the container.

"You don't remember?"

-No . . . Don't want too . . . too much pain, too much fighting.- The little thing trembled. -Please, keep me safe!- It clung to her. -I don't want to go back!- Spitfire blinked down at the little robot, feeling some empathy wash over her.

"Okay . . . but I can't keep you with me always, you're too obvious . . ."

-I can hide, tranform into gadget. Any small gadget!- It's grip tightened, it was starting to hurt.

" . . . Alright, come on, we'll find something you can change into." She picked it up, and then shoved open the door, leaving it to close behind her. This time, she headed to her house.

"Okay, this is my house, it's not much, and my dad is rarely here, but you can stay . . ." Spitfire got the little creature to her room. "This is my room." It was clean, and every furniture item and the walls were painted black, though on the walls some neon spray paint made swirls that resembled galaxies. She'd painted herself, while her dad was too drunk to care, and had gotten as many things black as she could, including sheets and cushions. She liked the effect.

-Dark.- The little guy, that's what she was pretty sure what it was, glanced around, blue optics blinking at the room. -But nice.-

"Glad you think so Midnight." Spitfire watched as his head, like a little owls, rotated completely around to look at her, Blue optics shiny and big. "That's the time I found you, and it's better than saying 'you' all the time." Spitfire blinked as the robot hugged her. She decided she wouldn't correct that behaviour just yet, and opted to bring up something the little bot had said. "Midnight, you say you don't want to fight . . . what do you mean?"

-Big war, Decepticons hurt Autobots, Autobots hurt Decepticons . . . use minicons to fight battles for them . . . then lose of memory files, and Midnight is here, away from fighting.-

"Midnight . . . I'm, I'm part of a gang that fights others, I won't have you fight my battles for me, but I thought you should know . . ."

-Warrior?-

"Er . . .to some extent, yes."

-Keep Midnight safe? Not make Midnight fight?- Spitfire dimly wondered if he liked the new name that much he wanted to talk in the third person. Grant it, it was cute.

"Yes, to both questions."

-Then Midnight not care, Midnight stay with Warrior.- He crossed his arms, decided.

"Midnight, my name's Spitfire."

-Midnight stays with Spitfire.- Her cell phone rang, she'd bought and paid the bills for it herself. Heck, she even had her own bank account and credit card . . . not that she'd tell her father or the gang, it was hard enough trying to explain she had a job that wasn't illegal. -What's that?-

"Cell phone." She answered it. "Spitfire here." She scowled. "No thank you Omega, I'm busy, I'll see you tomorrow, in school. Yes I'm still going, I cant get out of it, I already missed the amount I can for this month, any more, and I'll have to hang back a year, or have that idiot social worker here again. And I want to get out of the school, with a diploma." _I sure as hell won't be like my mom or dad who dropped out of highschool. _"I know, I'll be there, chill." She hung up. The cell phone was black, and was actually pretty thick.

-Midnight can become cell phone, stay with Spitfire.-

"How?"

-Watch.- Spitfire watched as Midnight took the phone, and plugged into it, downloading everything from it. (essentially, cloning it.) He then scanned the design, and transformed. (Okay, this is mainly because of how Soundwave can transfome into a tape deck, with is obviously way to small for a thirty or so foot robot to transform into in reallife. I apologize to the die hard fans who read this, but I Have a hard time swallowing that. (same thing with (I think) G1 Megatron becoming a gun) I'm sorry, but I am only a newbie into the Transformer universe . . . result being I'm still skeptic of some transformations, that said, Starscream and Bumblebee are two of my favorite characters- oh wait, The story!) Spitfire picked up the phone, and tested it out, before smiling, and putting her other phone away.

"Very cool, Midnight, very cool." She curled up in bed, the cell phone turning back into a miny robot, who was apparently what he called a minicon. Midnight curled next to her, staring at the paintings on the walls.

**Well, this is my attempt at a transformers fic . . . Midnight is a minicon I made up, and the all Gang characters are from my head as well . . . _Constructive Criticism _will be appreciated, The story is set just after the episode where Starscream betrays the Autobots and goes back to the Decepticons, might be a slight AlexisStarscream pairing later (I kinda like that pairing), if people squint, and please, cut the newbie a little slack with names and who turns into what, I haven't gotten that down pat just yet. That said, please review!**


	2. Just Another Day

**Forgot to say this in the other chapter, but I thought it was obvious, so- **

**I don't own Transformers, Armada or any other series, I own Midnight, Spitfire, and any other Ocs. (If I did own them, then do you think I'd be on this site, writing?)**

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* * *

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Just Another Day 

"Mmmm . . . " Spitfire opened her eyes to see two large Blue optics staring at her.

-Done with Recharge?- Midnight's tiny beeping voice almost made her smile. Almost. She couldn't really remember the last time she smiled.

"If by 'recharge' you mean 'sleep', then yes." Spitfire sat up, and glanced at the clock. It was six thirty. _Wonder why I always wake up at that time?_

-What do humans eat?- Midnight sat on her bed, watching her move about the room. Blue optics watching intently.

"Food . . . Organic Food, like plants. What do minicons eat?"

-Energion . . . umm, Spitfire, what are plants?- Spitfire did a double take at the minicon on her bed. Then realized that if the inhabitants of whatever planet he was from were made of metal, the odds of any plant life was slim to none. -Spitfire?-

"Plants . . . well . . ." Spitfire had no idea how to explain them to Midnight. "They're non-sentinent, non-animal growing things that Humans, like me, can eat. Some humans eat meat as well, which are non-sentinent animals."

-Okay . . . What's school?-

"It's a place where people learn, and where they meet up with friends . . ." Spitfire trailed off.

-Does Spitfire have friends?- Midnight blinked up at her with innocent optics.

"I belong to a gang . . . I don't have friends." Spitfire glanced away.

-Midnight be Spitfire's friend.- The beeping and whirring made a descisive sound.

" . . ." Spitfire felt her mouth open, but just closed it.

-Midnight likes Spitfire, so Midnight is Spitfire's friend. That's how it worked on Cybertron.-

" . . . I thought you didn't remember what happened?" Spitfire got her voice back.

-Midnight different from most Minicons . . . Midnight stored memories of the bots he was powerlinked to. Midnight remembers like they do . . . but not have any memories of self.-

"You only have the memories of the people that used you . . . not your own?"

-Yes . . .- Midnight made a soft grinding noise, that must've been his equivalent of a sob. -Midnight want real life, not someone else's!- Spitfire watched the baby blue optics turn sad and misty somehow. Akwardly, she put her hand on the little bot's back.

"Then in that case . . . I . . . I'd probably be a poor friend, Midnight . . . I've only ever lived for myself . . ." Midnight gripped her hand in both of his.

-Midnight wants to live for Midnight's self too . . . doesn't want to be used, anymore. Midnight wants to be Spitfire's friend.-

"And I'd like that too . . . I just don't know how to be a good one, Midnight." Spitfire patted his head, the metal was almost a polished smooth. "Now, here are some rules for today-" After giving him a basic rundown, She quickly took a shower and changed clothes. When she came back in, She noticed Midnight was tangled up in her underwear drawer. "Midnight!"

-Sorry!!! Midnight fell!!- Spitfire decided not to ask any more questions. -Spitfire, help!!-

* * *

-Midnight has a guestion.- Spitfire had decided to ride her bike to school, so she took some time to get there. 

"Go ahead." She'd fastened her cell phone, aka Midnight, to her belt. They'd tried out the earpiece that could connect, so that she could talk without looking like she was insane, and thankfully, it worked, so now Midnight's chirping and beeping was only in her ear.

-Is Spitfire real name?-

"No . . . It's Susan, Susan Lyndh, but most call me Spitfire. Unless it's that boring history teacher that insists on calling me Ms.Lyndh, doesn't do that with anyone else."

-But . . . Midnight thought 'Ms.' was a good, respecable, word . . .-

"First, the word is 'respectable', second, How did you come up with that? Third, I don't like it-"

-Why not? And Midnight looked up human speaking from flat device on table.-

"Flat dev- Oh you mean that old Laptop. As for why I don't like it . . ." Spitfire trailed off. "I don't know why I don't . . . I just-" _Great, now he's got me second guessing myself . . . I'd probably have started this eventually, but oh well. _"It's complicated, I'll explain it later." _Wait a second, that laptop can't connect to the internet, it's just a piece of junk that I found in a trashcan, so how?_ The only uses that Spitfire needed from the computer she found was turn on, type whatever, print (she'd gotten an old printer from a neighbor) and turn off. That's actually all it really did. She couldn't access the internet at all. "'Midnight, how did you learn it again?"

-Midnight hooked into 'labtob' and searched World wide wed. Found lots of stuff, including english Ditonary.- Spitfire decided against correcting Midnight's speaking mistakes. Besides, she was at school, and really didn't need people to think she was crazy.

"Okay . . . Midnight, we're at school, so you can't talk to me until lunch . . . just stay quiet, and you can probably learn somestuff by listening to the teachers talk."

-Kay, Midnight will be good.-

* * *

"Ah, Ms. Lyndh, good to see you joing us, do you have your homework for the days you missed done?" The History teacher smirked, thinking there was no way for his most troublesome student to have done it. 

From her desk Alexis glanced up to see 'Spitfire'. The girl was known for missing school and being blatantly disrespectful . . . but was only mildly surprised when The girl turned in all her homework.

"Of course, Teach, Just because I on't show up, doesn't mean I'm not working." She smirked. "Have fun grading." Spitfire wondered how many times she'd have to cut this guy down for him to realize that fact.

"Yes well . . ." Fully disgruntled, The teacher put the stack of papers aside. "Open seat next to Alexis." Alexis couldn't help but stare at the girls outfit, which all but screamed 'stay away from me'. Black jeans, black boots, black spaghetti strapped top, which revealed her midriff, which was way more toned than any other girls their age, though Alexis bet that her own experience of being with the Transfomers, and running aroung during their battles had added muscle to herself as well, and a black leather jacket that was fitted. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, showing off black stud earings (she was smart enough not to wear hoops or dangly ones, it would lead to a serious tear in her ears), and the streaks of red, purple, blue, and green showed, some more faintly than others. Her hands had a couple of rings, one was a plain, black thin band, and the other was silver and had a black stone in it, the center of a flower. Alexis could see the watch on her left wrist, a military one, that was pretty resilient to any sort of stress, as she put her books down, her other wrist had a black wristband with red lines down it and she had a black choker, with a skull and cross bones charm hanging off, around her neck. She had black fingernail polish, but Alexis noted that there were dark blue swirls on her nails as well, looking like a spiral galaxy. Spitfire slumped in the chair, and Alexis spent the entire period trying not to look at her. She glanced back at Fred occasionally, who was more focused on the teacher than usual. His last report card had a F in history, and he needed to bring that up if he wanted to keep hanging out with everyone. All he had to do was bring home at least two A's by the end of the month (he'd already gotten one) and he was in the clear.

"Now, I want you to work on a project in groups of Two or three, I've already selected the groups." Everyone glanced at Spitfire, who just glared at them, then away. "This project will be on the Founding Fathers of America," He started to explain what needed to be done.

_Oh, hell, this isn't going to be good. Maybe I should've gone with Omega to the train yard. Help with breaking in the two newbies . . ._ Spitfire didn't want to be paired with anyone. _I could still run to the main base we have . . ._ It was actually the first base the gang had had in the begining, what the other gangs laughingly called the 'moon' it was close to the city, but not in it. Novice gangs had been in and out of that barn long before Omega had claimed it. It was an old warehouse, empty, and still not condemed yet, the owner was stubbornly holding on to it, especially since he knew there was a gang still comanding it. Omega had beaten that into him.

"Ms. Lyndh, you, Alexis and Fred will be a group, you have George Washington."

_Oh, frag . . . _Alexis caught what she just thought, _Maybe I'm staying with the autobots too much. _

_Damn, so much for a quick visit to school, I gotta come back!_ Spitfire crossed her arms and glanced at the 'timid' girl next to her, as well as the boy behind her. _Well, this might not be too bad . . . _

_Okay, I can do this, and Alexis is in my group, she can help me . . . please, let me get an A . . . _Fred wrote down the assignment. Before Class let out and while everyone had gotten into their groups, Spitfire turned to them.

"What do you want me to do?"

" . . . Can you reasearch George Washington's civilian life?" Alexis took charge, simply because Fred was glancing away, he'd missed who the other person in their group was. "I'll take the campaigns and his military life, Fred, will you take his political life, as well as his precidency?"

"Sure." Spitfire wrote it down in her agenda, which Alexis was mildly surprised she had. "You can make the presentaion board, right?"

"Sure If you can't."

"I can't, have to recruit some new blood. If that idiot did his job right to begin with, I wouldn't be doing it." For a second Alexis stared at her, blinking. For the first time, Alexis noticed the black eye. The way she'd been sitting had hidden it from view. So did a blue streak of hair.

"You book your life around that gang, don't you?" Fred stated what he knew was obvious. The bell rang. Spitfire stood up.

"See you tomorrow."

* * *

Alexis sat in her science class, they were going over The solar system. While in History, she'd been distracted by the arrival of Spitfire, there were no distractions in this class. Her thoughts kept running over Starscream's betrayal of the autobots, She'd watched as he'd caught the Skyboom shield, then left with the other Decepticons. Idly she played with the mars rock, her thoughts going back to when Starscream had left it for them. _He had to have felt something, otherwise why'd he give it to us . . . and he liked our return gift, I could tell. _She sighed tunning back into the asteriod belt talk. _Starscream, why?_

She glanced down at the rock in her hand, then shook her head. _Come on Alexis, focus on class, Starscream obviously wasn't that interested in staying with the Autobots, and you should stop thinking like he betrayed you._ Her attempt to focus only lasted for a few minutes, as she put the rock back into her backpack, before her mind wandered to Spitfire. _At least schools are considered neutral ground by gangs, they generally avoid any sort of conflict here, and they're a bit nicer here as well, it's like an unspoken agreement. I wonder if the Autobots and Decepticons have a place like that? _

Alexis glanced at her notebook, she'd been doodling without thinking, and wound up drawing the autobot and decepticon symbols. _It's funny, for a moment, I could see Spitfire being a Decepticon, if she was a transformer. I'm not doing a very good job of paying attention today. _She glanced outside to see the P.E. teacher lead a run around the school. Rad and Carlos were leading the group. While the two had been good at P.E. before, the running, jumping and trying to avoid getting killed by Decepticons had made them even better. Carlos spotted her and waved. Rad smiled at her. She gave a half wave back, then turned back to the teacher. _I wonder how Spitfire got her black eye . . . I should try to talk to her at lunch.Or maybe not . . ._

* * *

Spitfire all but shot out the door at the end of the day. Pausing momentarily, she stared at a bike parked in front of the school. _It's the same vibe I get from Midnight. Why from this bike?_ She shoved the though out of her mind, and continued away from the school. Rad had noticed her hesitation, though.**

* * *

Well, that's the second chapter, I hope Alexis is in character . . . it's been awhile since I've seen Armada, I think the last full episode I saw was when Smokescreen (aka Hoist, why did they change the name?) was finally brought online again with a new body and interupted the fight between Hotshot and Starscream (Please say I've gotten that right, it's been a couple years). And after that it was bits and pieces that I've gotten filled in with various websites (and other fanfics that give POV for the series) So I'll emphasize I'm a bit rusty, but the story poped in my head, so . . . I'll see you next chapter. **


	3. Empathy or Apathy

**Empathy or Apathy**

High wire was throwing a small fit when he and Rad got home after school, But was able to wait until he was in Rad's room to start talking. 

-That girl had a minicon!-

"Huh?" Rad looked up from his dumb math homework, summer was two months away. He couldn't wait. "You mean the girl with the color streaks in her hair?" 

-Yes! She must have the mini-minicon, he can be like a signal jammer- Highwire stopped as the front door downstairs opened. He quickly hid on the far side of the bed. -Must be why no one alerted us, they don't know he's online.-

"But wouldn't Teletran 1 be able to find him?" The front door opened and closed again, Rad's dad probably had to get something. "I mean, when he first came online-" 

-Some earth materials can hide radiation, from what I heard of your science class.- Highwire stood up. -You're doing that wrong.- Highwire corrected the math problem. 

"Well . . ." Rad glanced at his nightstand, Lazerbeak was with Alexis this week. "There's not much I can do, Highwire, especially right now . . . And wouldn't that mean the decepticons couldn't find it?"

-Hope so . . .- 

* * *

"You're late, Spitfire." The guy she met up with was thin, greasey, and had a tattoo of a spider on his neck. He twtiched a little, and had a face that Spitfire just hated. He wasn't bad looking or disfigured, but something about him made her hate him. That, and he'd been trying to get her spot for a long time. If he ever tried to kill her, she wouldn't be surprised. 

"Shut up Spider, I had to go to school." She snapped at him. "And running away isn't an option." 

"Oh, okay, You've considered all your options, I see." He spoke in a condescending tone.

"Spider," She gripped his neck, digging her nails into it. "I will maim you without a second thought, now let's get moving, I've got other things I have to do for Omega." 

* * *

"Spitfire, whassup?" Pyro greeted her as she entered the building, a couple hours later. "Nice shiner." He backed off the instant she glared at him. He stopped when he was out of hitting range. 

"Any intersteresitng people?" Omega came out from a supply closet. Pyro proceeded to make himself scarce. "What happened to your eye?" 

_You did, bastard, why don't you go to hell? _Was what she thought, out loud she just said, "My old man, has a problem with how I've been acting. As for recruits, got four more, and met up with a gang leader who's getting ready to give up his gang, 'Rent's are yanking him out of this town, I persuaded him to have his join ours . . . He doesn't have a problem, but they're pretty much cattle." _Spider must be blind if he can't find people on a daily basis. _"But there's ten of them." 

"Good work . . . Need you to deliver this to Hacker, by the way, and get an answer about the request I gave him." He brushed her cheek with his hand as he headed outside. 

_I want to kill you._ "Fine." 

Hacker was the name Omega had given to a computer (and pretty much everything else too) genius. He was the only one Omega permitted to miss meetings and fights. Hacker's home life was a little choatic, and ironic at the same time. Both his mother and his father were cheating on each other, and neither figured it out. So while they may have loved Hacker, they confused him to the point he just decided to avoid them. If they lied to each other saying they loved them, but were cheating on the other, then why should he believe them when they said they loved him? Then there were nights when neither had come home, leaving him alone. 

Needless to say, whenever someone came to visit him, he was thrilled. 

"Sue! How are you?" He smiled at her, noting the black eye, as well as a thin scar on her neck. 

"Fine, Hacker. You?" He blinked then gave a smaller smile. 

"I'm fine, what's in the box?" She passed it to him. 

"Stuff from Omega . . . where are your parents?"

"Out, Finally was able to bug their phones . . . you would not believe how mushy they are with James and Alice." Hacker headed up stairs. "How's your dad?" 

" . . . probably on his way to needing a liver transplant. The way he's been drinking. Somedays I just want to kill him." Her arms crossed. "I almost wish he wasn't my father." 

"Almost?" Hacker opened up the door to his room. 

"I wouldn't be here if he wasn't."

"Sue . . . What does Omega need?" Hacker was the only one who could get away with calling Spitfire by her real name. They'd been friends before the gang. "And he does realize that people tend to associate Omega as 'last' right?"

"Yeah, but he thinks of it as the end of the line, you can't get second chances after fighting him." Hacker's room was filled with old cell phones he'd found in the trash, which had been taken apart, some computers, also taken apart, and other various electronic things, either in pieces or about to be. He had one computer that was still whole, but had somehow been able to hook other computers to it, making a crude super computer. He put down the box on the table. "He wants the answer to a request he gave you."

"That's it?"

"Huh?"

"I thought you'd be here for something else, not just to run errands." He sat in his chair and looked at her. "He gave you that black eye, didn't he." It wasn't a question so much as a confirmation. 

"Hacker-"

"Why on earth do you stay with them? Omega swore he wouldn't treat you like your father did, and you father is practically non existent. You-!" He put his hand to his mouth, Spitfire had just punched him. "What the . . . what's wrong with you? You're even acting like him now." Spitfire froze at that. She'd been about to hit him again. "What's wrong? You can tell me." She absently lowered her fist. 

_I didn't mean to hit him! I was just mad . . .I'm nothing like my father, or Omega! _"Nothing. I need to get going-" He grabbed her arm. 

"Hold on a sec, I want you to do something for me . . ." He handed her a rubics cube that was already messed up. She stared at it, then him. 

"You know I can never do these things, Hacker." 

"Humor me, try to use that psychic ability to figure it out. I'll get what Omega needs, you just focus on that. 'kay?" He cleared off a spot on his bed. Spitfire sighed, and reluctantly began focusing on the cube. Ignoring Hacker tapping at his keyboard, she started twisting the sides. 

Midnight, bored, decided to go into stasis for a bit. Though he really wanted to know what the cube thing she was playing with was.

_Twist here, and then here . . . _"Hacker . . . " He glanced at her, and then grinned as he realized she got all the colors back to being on one side each. 

"You did that in fifeteen minutes, Sue. Now try this one." He passed her another, just as messed up as the first. "I'm almost done, okay?" He turned back to the computer, and she glanced back at the new cube. 

"I really despise you right now." She heard him give a soft snort. Then glanced at the Rubrics cube. She silently began to work on it again, this time, she was able to tell what to turn, like someone was whispering in her ear. 

Hacker watched her turn the last row/column (depending on how you looked at it) Then at the clock. "You got that down to five minutes." 

"Why are you timing me?" She looked seriously annoyed. 

"Well . . . I wanted to test out a theory I had, from when you were able to tell which way a ball was going to go when we were little . . . you'd just watch a guy playing basketball, throwing a threepoint shot, and you'd know if it was going in or not. You see, I doubted that it was actually telling the future as more that you could subconciously calculate velocity and all that." 

"I was five-" He stopped her from waving him off.

"And I think you're actually a girl with genius qualities." Hacker noted that he had her actual attention. "Sue, you were able to remember tiny details of information that not even I remembered, and you could figure out things that no one else could. While you were always in one scrape or another, you would watch how people moved, and acted . . . Sorry, but, I honestly think you're just subconciously putting information together, eliminating what isn't possible, and it comes to you, all in a flash." 

" . . ." Spitfire gave a slight nod, absorbing the information. "I'm not going to completely buy all of that, just yet, but . . . I guess it's possible." 

"I'm 99 sure I'm right, I just need more information to make it to 100." Hacker leaned back. "Anyway, I'm working on a new project, Can you get Omega to stop by?" 

"Why?"

"I want to talk to him." Hacker sighed then glanced at a side monitor, where a alert was flashing. "Mom's talking to James. I seriously just want to mess with them and have it so all of them meet somewhere at the same time." 

"Well . . . you talk to both that James guy and your dad right?" 

"Yeah, do you have an idea?"

"Other than suggest they make dinner reservations at the same resturant, same day, same time, not much." 

"Heh, that would be interesting." Hacker stood up. "Anyway, to Omega, tell him not yet, I've got to get two more parts before I can do it. But it may be possible by the end of the month." 

"Sure thing." Spitfire got up. "See you around Ha-"

"Hey, Sue, do me a favor, call me by my real name this time." 

"O . . . kay . . ., See you later, Rick." He smiled at her, then watched her ride away. 

"I wonder if you're aware of how much you've changed . . ." He glanced at the computer. He'd been able to stay away from the gang more than she had, and he'd managed to escape the more destructive aspects. _My home life may be out of whack, but at least my parents didn't hurt me with their fists. I wonder if she realizes that she's probably not going to last long if she keeps trying to keep up with the gang . . . but there's nothing I can do without making her angry at me._ It didn't matter who you were, or how old, if you saw one of your friends in trouble, and you knew they weren't doing anything to escape it, you wanted to help, but if they didn't want it, you just felt helpless. 

* * *

"Whoa!" Spitfire ducked at the shout, just in time to see Spider pass overhead. He landed in a bush. A thorn bush, to Spitfire's amusement. 

"Learning how to fly, Spider?" She glanced down at him. He glared at her.

"Shut up, Spitfire!" The comment was followed by cussing and swearing up a blue streak. None of the words were very compliementary to her. She just arched an eyebrow and then impishly dropped the box she'd been moving on him. Somehow, listening to him yelp in pain was fun. She didn't feel any large amount of guilt for doing that.

"My mistake, I was going to help you." She turned away. "Put the box over there when you get up." Ignoring him, she headed to where his take off had occured. 

"Nice, Brusier." Omega was talking to an older kid, who had already lost most of his mind to drugs. He was fairly muscular too, which was probably due to taking steroids. The big guy just nodded. "Spitfire, did you see where Spider landed?" 

"Tangled in a thorn bush, and then cursing at me. So I left him there." Omega laughed at that. Spitfire glanced at the other three in small clearing, just outside the warehouse. "So, why was he flying to begin with?" 

"Wanted to see how strong Brusier here really was. He threw Spider about-"

"Ten feet, or less." Spitfire glanced at the boy next to bruiser, he was shorter than her. "I'm Mercury, Ms.Spitfire." 

"Drop the Miss." She spoke automatically. Before glancing at the third. 

"You're a girl, and you're second in command?" The boy spat on the ground, unimpressed. "How pathetic is that?" 

"Pathetic is if I wasn't second in command, Smart mouth." She absently put her hand on her hip. "And the fact you carry a pocket knife, can't you use somthing better?" He blinked at that. "Omega, I need to get going, tomorrow's Friday. I'll see you in the afternoon." 

"Why? Your mommy needs you home?" Smart mouth, even if that wasn't the guy's name, it would be what she called him, gave an attempt at a sneer. He was very quickly slammed into the wall by an irate Spitfire. Two quick punches and a swift knee between the legs had him on the ground. 

"My mother's dead, Smart mouth. And I'm choosing to go home early, I need to grab somethings for the weekend." He couldn't actually focus on her voice past the 'My mother's dead' part. 

"Spitfire . . . I'd appreciate if you didn't do that." Omega glanced down at the guy on the ground. "At least, not in front of me, and his name is Knife." 

"Still has a mouth on him that speaks too much." Spitfire crossed her arms. _He can also go to hell, so can Spider._ "So, Is it alright to go?" 

"Just be here after school lets out, we're going to plan an attack." 

"Right." She turned and walked away as Spider came back, cut by thorns and looking rather pitiful. 

"Spider, get cleaned up and help Knife get to his feet. You two come with me." 

"_Who's on first? I don't know -third base._" Spitfire slipped past the dark living room, her dad was watching a Abott and Costello, and judging from the beer bottles, had already been drinking. A loud snore cut through the dialouge, and she gave a soft sigh of relief. She was in her room soon after. 

"Midnight, it's okay to transform now." The tiny minicon transformed on her desk, then tipped his head to one side. 

-Does 'dead' mean offline?- Spitfire blinked at him, then gave a slight nod. 

"Yes." She sat on her bed. 

-What happened to Spitfire's mother?-

"Midnight, I don't want to talk about this right now." She snapped at the minicon, then glanced away. "Sorry, it's-" 

-Okay, Midnight didn't mean to hurt you.- The minicon came down off her desk, opening drawers to be more like steps. 

_That explains why he was in my underwear drawer, he was trying to get down from my desk._ Midnight walked over to her, then realised he couldn't get on top of the bed.

-Spitfire, help.- He held up his tiny arms and she lifted him to be on the bed next to her. -Thanks.- Midnight curled next to her. -Spitfire, what was that boy talking about? With you figuring things out very quickly to predict the future?-

"His name's Hacker, as for what he was talking about, I have what some people call E.S.P. or a sixth sense. I can tell pretty much instantly what's metal, like I can tell a solid gold ring from a ring that's just gold plated, but I can't read minds or see ghosts . . . or at least, I think I can't."

-What's a ghost?- Midnight was trying to recall if he saw the word before. 

"A ghost, depending on what you read, is either someone who refuses to move on to the afterlife, because there's something they have to do, or is here serving out somesort of punshiment for something they did or did not do. Ghosts can't actually be seen by the normal human eye, though some people can feel them. Some people with really strong sixth senses can actually see them moving around, and people have supposedly caught them on film too." Spitfire fell back on her bed. Midnight moved so he could look at her face. "Hacker thinks I was able to see them when I was little, though I still think he just ignored his surroundings." 

-Could Spitfire see one?- Midnight's optics blinked at her. 

"According to Hacker, I probably do. Supposedly, Ghosts have somesort of detectable electro magnetic field, which would give some of the same charateristics of iron, but I doubt it." 

-Spitfire can sense metal, explain more, please.-

"I don't know how to explain it, Midnight, If I touch something, I can tell what sort of metal it's made up of, if I've encountered it before. But all metal gives off a similar signature. I knew there was metal inside that marble statue, but it felt weird, it gave me more of headache, and I can tell you're metal because you have the same basic signature of earth metal, but it's really small. You give off a different vibe, but since I can't sense other humans, I have to guess you're actually completely metal." Spitfire glanced at him. 

-Could Spitfire find others like Midnight?- Midnight's blue optics stared at her inquisitively. 

"To an extent, probably, I think there was one at school. I think it was a bike." 

-Midnight would like to see brothers and sisters again . . . even if they're with the Decepticons-

"What's a decepticon? You've mentioned them before." She watched as Midnight focused his eyes on the ceiling, and projected the image of the Deception symbol. Spitfire was slightly glad she had painted the ceiling black as well. 

-Decepticons . . . they want to take over the planet, won't settle for compromise . . . they are constantly at war with the Autobots - he projected the image of the Autobot symbol. -Who want to protect and keep the planet safe . . . Midnight liked the autobots the best, they tried to get the minicons out of the war.- He stopped projecting. -Decepticons and Autobots are like giant versions of the minicons, could turn into larger things, still hide in plain sight.- Spitfire nodded, silent. -What's Spitfire thinking?- 

"Just that I'm curious . . . What could you minicons do?"

-Well . . . Some of us formed into weapons so the Autobots or Decepticons were stronger, otherwise it would be a stalemeat.- 

"Stale_mate_." Spitfire corrected under her breath. 

-But, Midnight doesn't remember what he could do!- 

"Would you want to?" Spitfire looked down at him. "You have enough power to stay hidden, and that's all you need."

-Midnight would still like to remember.- Midnight gave a soft little noise that that hinted he was sad. 

"Yeah . . . I would want to be able to remeber things that I've forgotten, too . . . Like what happened to my mom."

-Midnight thought she was dead.-

"I think she's dead, but she could have easily just left. She and my dad got married only because she was going to have me, they both dropped out of school . . ." Spitfire stared at the ceiling. "Midnight . . . can you project a star field?" 

-Midnight'll try.- Midnight moved to have his head next to hers, before he projected stars. The result was that if you didn't look at the furniture, it really did look like you were floating in space. 

"That's beautiful, Midnight, thank you." Midnight gave a small churr, she gussed it meant 'your welcome' or he was embarrassed. Probably the second. "Any way, what Hacker was guessing was that I could subconsciously, do really complex math by just watching a person do an action . . . like throwing something, and be able to know what was going to happen just by watching how they moved. So it wasn't really foresight, it was just my mind working really fast. Faster than I could conciously comprehend." She stared at the ceiling. "Which makes sense, it means I was thinking ahead, . . . the only problem is I'm actually awful at math, or strategy games."

-Oh, Midnight meant to ask, what was the cube thing?-

"It's called a rubrics cube . . . there are some people who can supposedly get it fixed in under a minute." Spitfire stretched out. "Which I find impossible, that means they'd have to move really fast, and think at the same time." 

-Can't Spitfire do that?-

" . . ." Spitfire glanced at the ceiling. 

-Spitfire?-

"I don't know Midnight, I just don't know . . . Any way, it's time for bed, Midnight." Spitfire kicked off her shoes and grabbed what worked as pajamas for her. A pair of stretch pants and a tanktop (black and navy, respectively). Midnight shut down the star field. He moved to sit on her nightstand. 

_It's nice to have someone to talk to. Instead of lying in bed thinking. _Spitfire sighed. Summer was coming up, but she honestly couldn't say she cared. Life was the same no matter how she looked at it. She came home, no, she went back to her houuse, it was about the same type of Shelter the gang was, which equalled not much. Spitfire glanced at an old picture frame on the desk, currently faced down. _I must be a fool, hanging onto this life. _That thought disapeared just as fast as it came, and Spitfire ignored the desire to pack a bag, grab Midnight, and run. But as usual, the thought didn't stay, and she went to sleep. Midnight curled next to her. 

Spitfire's only problem was that she knew exactly what was wrong in her life, and how to get out of it. She just never acted, because she didn't have a reason to get out, her life would be empty, if she ever did get away from the gang. She didn't have a reason to live, a person, a dream or a goal. She just had the will to survive, and keep moving.

**Well folks, I have a slight problem. I have two possibilities for the story, #1 being if Spitfire joined the decepticons** **#2 if she joined the Autobots. This is where you guys come in, all you have to do is review and tell me which one you want, but be forewarned that if she goes w/ the decepticons, it might get a bit dark. I won't post the next chapter of the story till I get at least ten votes for one of the choices. (Hopefully by then I'll be able to write the next part) ****Anonymous reviews are accepted. ****On that note, please Read & Review!**


	4. Never Gonna Stop

**Never Gonna Stop**

Spitfire took a hit to her stomach. It figured that she got caught taking a shortcut to her house through another gangs territory . . . at least Midnight was in her room, he didn't need to see this.

"Let that be a lesson to you, bitch. We catch you on our turf again, we're gonna kill you." The two girls that had beaten her laughed as they walked away. The laughs rang in her ears. It sarted to rain as she stumbled towards her house.

"You'd think her mother and father would teach her a lesson on being such a loose girl at that age." An older woman and a slightly younger one walked past. "Shameful, such a disgrace."

"Don't look at her." A mother and her children walked past.

"White trash." The words rang in her head, she heard them before. She alway heard them.

_You all couldn't survive my life, cowards! Don't judge me on your high and mighty terms, you bleed red just like I do! _Spitfire stumbled. _I wish you all would die! I don't need any of you!_

"Lookie here, a lost little girl-" Spitfire could barely see the person that hit her.

"The bitch that took our territory . . . let's teach her a lesson." A female voice. A knife cut her side, stabbing would be too quick.

"Probably just a trophy for her leader, we'll fix that." Someone extinguised a cigarette on her arm. Anger and frustration came out, and she grabbed a crowbar, hearing the crunch of bone as she swung. She forced herself to run.

Sideswipe had been driving around town, thinking about the explanation Red Alert and Rad had agreed on as why they hadn't found the minicon come online. He also was wondering why the children had been against going up to the girl and talking to her about the minicon. He stopped on a dime as he saw a group of Kids, they couldn't be that much older than Rad and the group, beat up a girl. The girl snapped a bit, and beat them back, before running. _She's hurt, really bad . . ._ Sideswipe followed her. Shocked at how people just glanced at her, then away, as if she wasn't worth any form of effort. _How can they do this to a Youngling of their own kind! How can they ignore the fact she bleeding?! _For the first time in Sideswipe's life, he saw red. It wasn't enough to hurt anyone, but _Even the decepticons have some for of honour that won't have them ignore younglings, at least the lower level ones do, Megatron and his officers would be doubtful. But still-_ He watched her enter a neighborhood, stumbling almost falling, but forcing herself to move.

_I don't need anyone . . . no one needs me . . . _She stumbled past the first few houses, she glanced up at one of the nicer ones. She could see a blonde little girl and her parents eating, happy, warm, safe. She hated them. _Don't cut off your nose to smite your face, bullshit_. She hated her life, hated being alone . . . _I should die . . . I'm just a waste of air . . ._ She'd heard that too. She stumbled to her front door, weakly opening it.

"What are you doing here?" Her father struck her. "No good piece of- I ought to teach you to listen to me." Spitfire couldn't even stand as he beat her to the ground, there never was an actual reason behind the violence, he just hit her.

"Dad!" _No, you idiot, don't call him that! He doesn't deserve that title!!_ Spitfire grit her teeth Eventually he went back to drinking, leaving her in the hall.

_She's hurt enough, you glitchhead!! _Sideswipe had only been able to watch as the man beat the girl. _I hope-, oh Primus that was her creator- What sort of planet is this?!_ The cry had shocked him as the door closed, Sideswipe couldn't do anything out of shock. The man was the girl's creator, so how could he harm his own child?

/Sideswipe, Blurr, come back to base, we have to keep working on the ship/ Red Alert's voice came over the comm link, so Sideswipe memorized the address, then turned and left. _If I get half a chance, I have to help her. _No one deserved that treatment, no one.

-Spitfire!You're hurt!- She'd weakly crawled up the stairs and to her room. Midnight tried to help her, he was able to close her door, She got herself to sit against her bed. -Spitfire . . .-

"I'll be fine Midnight . . . I can take this." _I don't have a reason to live . . . so why do I?_ Almost mechanically, she was able to pull a first aid kit out from under her bed. Midnight helped her bandage herself.

-Midnight thinks you're lying.-

"Yeah, probably am." _I always lie . . . I don't have a reason to tell the truth. _"I can't feel it anymore . . . the pain and self pity . . . it's just pure hate . . ."

-Spitfire?- She past out, exhausted. Midnight leaned his head against her chest, hearing a dull heartbeat. He loved the sound.

"There you are Sideswipe- What's wrong?" Optimus saw a faintly stunned look on Sideswipe's face, like he was trying to recover from a shock.

"Sideswipe, you okay, man?" Carlos looked up at the robot.

"Carlos, do you know any reason why humans would not help a kid, your age?"

"Mm, not really, why?" Sideswipe told him what he'd seen, even projected an image of the girl and Carlos' mouth opened in an 'O', Optimus looked like he was shocked too. "Oh man . . . that girl you saw, she's part of a gang . . . gangs are groups of kids and adults that have set areas of territory that they keep . . . She must've been cutting through another gangs area, and they beat her for trespassing-"

"How do you know that?"

"At school, you'll hear stories, it's a neutral ground for gangs, but they'll tell stories about how they beat another gang or a member of one, and generally why, to scare off other kids . . ."

"Then why would her 'dad' beat her?"

"Well, not all parents are exactly suited to care for a child . . . " Carlos took a breath. "As for why he would hurt her, I don't know, it varies from case to case, but we can't do anythin about it, right now-"

"Why not? it can't be good for her to be trapped in this enviroment!" Optimus watched Sideswipe, silent.

"Because, how would a car know to call the authorities, and there's no way for me to report it, because I don't live in that neighbor hood, none of us do." Carlos was a bit relieved when Optimus picked him up. "Besides, there are more like her, that no one finds . . ."

"So you do nothing?"

"If she hasn't called for help herself, then there's probably no way to help her, she's old enough to know how to call for help." Carlos noted the look Sideswipe had. "Sideswipe, the reason no one helps them is because they're scared, gang members have reputations of violence, A gang actually killed some people for no other reason than they could a year ago."

"You don't care, do you?"

"If I saw one lying injured in the street, I'd probably alert the police, but it's dangerous to get involved . . . some gangs are kinda like the human version of Decepticons."

"Carlos is right, as kids, we can't actually do anything to help them . . . especially since they don't want our help." Rad and Highwire entered the room, "Who are we talking about, anyway?"

"Who doesn't want help?" Jetfire enetered the room confused. He got the abreviated version. Sideswipe projected the image again. Highwire beeped in excitement.

"Hey, That's the girl who has the minicon, whatshername . . ."

"Susan. Though her gang friends call her Spitfire." Alexis and Sureshock came in, "Red Alert wants to know what's keeping you."

" . . ." Optimus thought for a moment. "Sideswipe, keep an eye on the girl, I don't want to run the risk of the decepticons finding her and us not being near enough to help- but do not interact with her, understand?"

"Alright Optimus." Sideswipe left pretty quick.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Jetfire started towards the shuttle.

"He'll be fine . . ." Optimus put Carlos down. Sideswipe's optics when Carlos started to explain had actually flash red for a nanosecond. "He won't disobey a direct order." _I hope. _

"Damn it . . . " The next day, it was raining again, and she was stiff as a board. She hadn't made it to her bed at all. "Sunday . . ." She'd dreamed about going to church with her mom and dad before, she'd been forced to wear some pink little dress. She'd thought she had been adorable. "I gotta get ready for work . . ." The faint memory of what had been disapeared.

-Work? you're injured!- Midnight onlined his optics at the sound of her voice.

"Yeah, but it'll be fine." Spitfire got up and looked at her reflection in the bathrrom mirror. bruises on her face, some skin broken on her neck . . . she could cover it up. Thankfully, it was cold out. A longsleeved black turtleneck, black jeans and make up later the bruises were all but gone. Except for that black eye she had. She mad sure her hair would cover hat eye bbefore she turned to midnight. "Let's go." Midnight transformed and she attached him to her belt. _Now to think of a better cover story than 'I fell down the stairs'._

"Oy, Susan, you're late!" The kitchen staff ignored Spifire as she grabbed her stuff. Well, except the head chef, who owned the joint. "You- What happened to your eye?"

"I walked into a glass door." She tied the red waist apron on. "Sorry I'm late."

"Hurry up then." The chef wasn't that big of an idiot, he knew Susan was lying. But there wasn't anything he was going to do about it. Hae knew Susan Lyndh was getting abused. She was good at hiding the bruises, good at lying too, so he just followed a majority of people in thinking that eventually she'd come to him. That would be like expecting a stray cat to come when called.

"Hello, my name is susan, what would you like to drink?" A fake smile and a few blonde ditz that decided to make life hell for her later, She was taking a break.

"Here." The chef held out an ice pack. "For the swelling." Spitfire took the ice pack and put it on her eye. As she did, she noticed a car. It was empty and parked in the parking lot, but that wasn't what bothered her. It was the same sort of feeling she got from Midnight, times ten. "You okay?"

"Fine. I'll be fine." Once more, she retreated from the easy way out. _I'm so pathetic._ All she'd ever have to do to get out of the cycle, was cry for help, call the police, tell a teacher or someone where she worked- she _knew_ that. But it was either some form of pride or fear of being saved from this hell and then be put into an even worse one. _better the evil you know, than the evil you don't._ "Time for me to get back to work."

"Miranda, I'll be home soon, I promise, we've just stopped to eat, and then I'll be home. The conference was excellent. Tell Kicker I've got a surpirse for him." Susan waited for the man to get of the phone before she got his drink order, the men were talking about some sort of almost accident with the last spaceshuttle. Returning with the drinks, she passed them out.

"I disagree, Phil, a wormhole wouldn't appear and then disapear-" One of them men almost hit her, he was gesticulating wildly.

"It could have been some solar enery reacting with particles, then."

"But then explain why the men saw a second shuttle!"

"Wormholes are awfully hard to explain-"

"Isn't it a hole in space/time that sort of collapses distances?" Spitfire hadn't meant to interrupt, but she couldn't help it.

"Yes, in a nutshell, Ms.-" The one that had been on the cell phone looked apologetic.

"Susan."

"Ah, yes, should've just read your nametag, I'm Dr. Jones." He smiled polietly at her. "You see-" Susan listened intently to what they said anytime she was nearby, she sometimes would ask questions, and they'd respond. She couldn't stop litsening because it was such a different world. A less dark one, on that note.

"Get left behind?" Dr.Jones was the last one left at the table when she came to clean up.

"No, I wanted to give you this." He handed her a card with his name and address. "You're a very bright young lady, I would like to continue our talk some other time." She took it, surprised. "Or even if you need any sort of help."

"Thank you, sir . . ."

"No problem at all." Dr. Jones left, getting into his car. He was a brilliant enough mind to see that the blackeye the girl had was probably from a punch, and that the girl's eyes had a weary look about them, and his internal father had almost started yelling when he'd seen bruises on her arm when her sleeve had pulled back a bit. Through the small talk he learned when her shift was, and whether or not Miranda would like it, he was taking the family out to eat at that resturant, almost every week.

-You've got a call- Midnight beeped at her as she stepped out side, her shift overwith. Reluctantly, she connected.

"Where the hell are you, Spitfire?"

"On my way to the base, I had work today."

"Hurry the hell up, we've got a target!" Omega slammed his phone down on the other end, leaving spitfire sighing.

"And the party never stops . . ." She headed to their base. The card was put into her pocket, she doubted she'd ever use it.

Sideswipe wanted to grab the girl and take her somewhere safe. She was meeting up with a group of other human boys, none of them looking safe, exactly. Particularly the one playing with a large knife. _Does she have a death wish?_

/Sideswipe, how's the girl?/ Red Alert had been alarmed when he was told about the living conditions of the human girl holding the minicon, he'd been in agreement with Sideswipe that she should get pulled out of that situation. Probably one of the few times they would ever agree on an action.

/So far, fine, but I don't like the group she's with . . . / 'Fine, being established as 'standing and moving'.

/That must be the gang of hers then./ Red Alert's voice sounded tired. /Keep an eye on her . . . /

"So, we're raiding another gang's base, due to the ammunition they have?" Spitfire had a bad feeling about this.

"Yep. We're also going to kill them." Bad feeling justified. Spitfire knew her life was going in a steady downwards circle, she'd refrained from drugs (palming the pills, the smoking part was easier to refuse) and alcohol (she'd only ever had one drink at a time) because she wanted to have some form of control over her actions, thought both would probably deaden the pain she felt, but it was a line she'd barely touched. Killing would be a different line altogether, one not so easily faked. If she crossed it, there would be a change . . . Though why she bothered keeping herself from falling was beyond her, really. What did she have to lose? A pain filled life with constant jeers and lies was it, if she ever did cross the line.

_That's not true . . . you have midnight. _As Omega wnt over his plan, Spitfire's hand strayed to her phone. _He needs you. You have to stay upright for him, he's a child, a lonely scared child._

_I don't care, I was too, and no one saved me!_

_But you can be better than the ones that ignored you. You just have to take care of him, and anyother Minicons you run into._

_Why- am I arguing with myself?_

"Spitfire." She was jerked out of her thoughts, and looked at Omega. "Are you in or out?"

"In." It was an automatic reply. "Think I'm going to let you boys have all the fun?" She really didn't feel the sadistic girl like she acted right then, the show of moving to show off her figure, or lack of one, and winking at omega, was purely mechanical. _Here we go, a night in hell._

**Well, Sideswipe might be a bit OOC . . . And so might the kids . . . I'm sorry, next chapter I'm not to pleased with either, but I'm trying to get this story moving. Any suggestions? and in case you didn't notice, yeah, she's going to go with the autobots. (If she was going to go with the decepticons, Wheeljack would've been the one to find her) And I'm seriously considering that after I finish this story I also post the Decepticon version (Just so I can get it off my computer) There was also another version I had batted around for a bit, where Spitfire actually went with Sideways and joined with unicron, but Autobots won out. See you next chapter!**


	5. Wake me Up

**I might wind up deleting this chapter and posting a better version . . . I'm not that thrilled with it.**

**Wake me Up**

_A Night in hell, yep, that's accurate_. Spitfire ducked a punch, grab the arm, and then knocked the wind out of the guy with her knee. _What god or gods did my parents tick off when I was born? _She flipped the next guy, his head hitting the ground, knocking him out. Spitfire didn't actually know Judo, gymnastics or any pure form of fighting. She just knew there were points you could press to knock someone out (she found that out at one of her trips to the library) She knew she could use her opponent's weight against them, and she could keep her balance and center of gravity, so if someone threw her she could twist and land on her feet. What could she say, she was a street fighter. She finally was able to get inside, only to feel a distress signal, similar to midnight's when she first found him. _Great, perfect timing._

Rewind, before the fight started:

Sideswipe bounced on his tires, not liking what he was seeing. A rundown house, occupied, and the group he was following was defientely up to nothing good for their health. Spitfire looked like she wasn't to thrilled with what was going down either. _I don't like this . . . _His engine gave a slight rumbling sound._ H_e really didn't know what to do. He moved to a little open space, the trees not completely blocking his view of the house. Spitfire moved passed him with a couple of boys, she stopped and glanced at him. Like she was going to walk over, but one of the boy's called her name, and she walked away. _What do I do?_

About the same time the fight started:

The alert for a minicon went off, bringing everyone to the control room.

"Where is it?"

"Well . . . for Teletran-1's coordinates and Sideswipe's homing device, right in the middle of a human gang fight." Red Alert was wondering who had such a sick sense of humor up above. "I'll set it to an area just outside the building . . ."

"We might be able to slip in and get it." Rad offered.

"That would be dangerous-"

"Any dangerous than tagging along with you guys when you fight decepticons?" Alexis noted the looks. "We just slip in while they're fighting, get the minicon, and get out, quick as possible."

"I'm sitting this one out." Billy sat down. Fred was grounded at home, working on history.

" . . . Let's go." _I don't like this_, was the thought in every single autobot core processor. They warped out.

Highwire transformed (so did Grindor and Sureshock) and followed the kids in, the groups were fighting and ignoring the back half.

"Be careful. Stay close." Rad led the way inside.

/You, wait, what?! You sent the children there?/ Sideswipe wanted to strangle something. /Two human younglings have been killed!/

/What?!/

/This could end badly . . ./ Hotshot absently bounced on his tires, thinking about going after the kids. /On the other hand, the Decepticons aren't around./

The reason the decepticons weren't 'around' was because they were watching the fight. (They'd left Thrust and Wheeljack to work on the new cannon, Megatron had been itching for a good fight.) Cyclonus cackling like mad at the fighting. Even Megatron found it amusing to watch. Starscream, though he didn't voice it, didn't like the fight. _They're the same age as the children . . . _Since they couldn't go in themselves, Swindle and Leader-1 had gone in. In the mean time-

\Hahahahaha! Did ya see that? Right in the tank!\

\Should've brought some energon. This is almost as entertaining as fighting autobots.\ Demolisher watched the fight.

\Hey, Lord Megatron, I've got an idea-\

\How?\ Demolisher's little jab at Cyclonus went unnoticed.

\We conquer Cybertron, we set up a fighting arena, have a bunch of different aliens fightin' each other!\

\I like that idea, Cyclonus . . . very much . . .\ Megatron's aproval made him cackle with glee.

\Shut up, I'm trying to watch the fight!\ That was a lie, but Starscream really didn't want to listen to Cyclonus cackle. Thankfully Demolisher also took up the thread.

"Found it!" Carlos pulled out the disk, someone else also grabbed it. "Swindle?" The minicon just beeped at him. Leader-1 just behind him. Highwire looked like he was arguing with the other minicon.

"Look, We know you want the disk, but can we argue about this somewhere else?" Alexis looked at Swindle who glanced at Leader-1. Leader-1 looked torn for a minute, before beeping in agreement. He didn't want to get caught up in a human fight as well.

"Let's go!" Rad led the way, then pulled up short.

"Going somewhere?"

"Aw, hell . . ." Spitfire saw five minicons, three humans, one shield/disk, and about ten pissed off boys about to attack them with knives, none of them her gang. _Isn't that Alexis?_ "Well, when in Rome-" She picked up a brick. "Hey, douche bags!" The brick knocked out the ringleader of that minigroup.

"Bitch!"

"Aw, that's sweet." Spitfire only had one semi advantage, the hallway was small enough so they had to attack her one at the time. _Wait a second, what advantage? _

"Watch out!" Spitfire blinked as Pyro pulled her out of the way and Bruiser threw a metal beer keg into the attacking group. Those it didn't knock out probably had their legs broken.

"Nice shot Bruiser." Spitfire could feel the minicons and the shield somewhere down the hall. "Come on, ammunitions is this way."

"Any . . . time . . . pretty . . . fire." Bruiser followed her. A group of their gang was already there. Spitfire gave orders, then slipped away. She had to make sure the unwoken minicon got out safely, as did Alexis and those two boys. Her conscience was probably going to be the death of her, was a very faint thought in the back of her mind.

-Watch out.- While it was difficult, Alexis could just make out what Swindle said before he tackled her (as did Sureshock). Bullets hiting the wall where her head had been. Leader-1 shoved Rad and Highwire out of the way. Carlos and grindor had hit the deck just after Alexis.

-Hurry.- Leader-1 and Highwire were in agreement on that.

"Thanks Swindle." She got an embarrased beep.

"Let's get out of here guys." Moments later, they were outside, long enough for the minicons to give a show of fighting. Leader-1 allowing the unawakened minicon to go with the humans.

Spitfire breathed a soft sigh of relief as the group of six headed toward the trees with the shield/disk. It didn't completely leave her, though, as she saw a shadow follow them. A familiar one, as she'd seen the guy kill one of her gangmates. _Bloody hell._ She went after him.

"That, was so not fun!" Alexis was relieved when they got back to the waiting autobots. Optimus Scavenger and Hotshot were still there. Sideswipe had parked further ahead so he could see the house. Red Alert and Blurr had pulled back to see where the decepticons were exactly.

"Everyone okay?" Optimus opened his doors, letting Rad and Highwire in.

"Yeah, except fo- ummph!" Carlos tripped and dropped the minicon disk, which wound up saving his life, but not hotshot's paintjob, which now had a scratch from a knife that had been thrown. Grindor very quickly moved to cover Carlos.

"Carlos!!" Some guy was about to shoot him, it was point blank range, once finisehed pulling out the gun, Hotshot was about to transform (so was Sideswipe) to knock out said kid, when-

"Hey, Pick on someone who can stand." The gun was knocked away as Spitfire jumped the guy. Who was wearing body armour. _I have definetly got a death wish. _She managed to push the guy a few feet back. "Three guns, two knives, and a homemade tazer, you trying to make up for something?" _Maybe insulting the guy isn't your best bet, Spitfire. _Despite reprimanding herself, and yelling at herself for even bothering with people outside her life, she stayed in between him and Carlos. The minicon disk having gone to the side.

"Witch . . ."

"Well, that's a step down from what I'm normally called." _Yeah, I definely should get my head checked. _

"I'm going to kill you." He lunged at her with a knife. The Autobots, the minicons and the humans froze up. The fighters would be too close to seperate.

"Wow, here I thought Witch hunting went out in about the 16-1700's." She waited half a second, the flipped the guy to the side, away from the disk and Carlos."Midnight, guard the disk." Midnight came of of her belt, transforming as he landed, kinda awkwardly, and then he grabbed the disk. Whirring in concern. She ignored Midnight, and she ignored the pain in her arm from where her arm had gotten cut. "You need to fastforward to this century pal." She skipped back as the knife cut air near her stomach. Then grabbed his arm. Up close and personal, she was able to toss a gun and tazer away. Unfortunately, the guy's fist was like a rock, and she struggled to get air after he hit her stomch. The knife cut her face.

**BAM!!** A noise like a firecracker going off, and one of her legs almost gave out. _Don't fall, don't fall. _She grabbed onto one of his arms as he grabbed her, flipping in the direction he was trying to throw her."Damn." Several somethings cracked when he hit her again. "Better go for broke." Pure Adrenaline washed out the pain. _Focus, focus. _She hit a pressure point on his neck and his head, which her non-masochistic side pointed out she should've done that earlier. He collapsed unconcsious. "Big guy with an arsenal, looses to a girl with no weapons, heh. How's that for irony? . . ." _Stay standing, you lay down, you'll never get back up! Come on girl.Stay up!!_

"DIE!!" She really didn't think about reacting, all she knew was there was a tazer, on, coming straight at her.

_Back off!_ Once again the feeling of something leaving her, and then she heard the sound of some guy yelling in pain. And the sound of a car screeching to a stop. _Help me . . ._ Simultaneously, she heard the boy, Carlos?, yell in shock. She just stared at the guy with the tazer. _Spider . . . why am I not surprised? _Some how, the homemade tazer had broken, wires going into his skin, along with the smell of buring flesh. He was either dead or unconcious. Unfortunately, what came to her mouth was blood, and She started to cough. Someone non-human held her, catching her from hitting the ground.

Sideswipe decided that human blood was something he never wanted to see again as he caught the girl before she collapsed. "Red Alert!"

"Give her to me, her lung is punctured." Red Alert scanned the human rapidly, taking her in his hands.

-Spitfire, Spitfire!- Midnight ran to her, the Minicon in the disk had woken up, and he wasn't a very big concern to Midnight anyway. Spitfire was. One of the other humans picked him up. -Sptifire!!-

"Hang on, you'll be fine, Youngling." _Who said that? _Spitfire could hear voices, particularly Midnight's, then her vision grayed, then she passed out.

"Hurry." Red Alert warped back to the base, holding onto the human. Sideswipe transformed and was heading to base the normal way, as he hadn't used the warpgate to get there. Optimus held back a moment to scan the two humans left. Both would be fine without medical attention, then he and he rest followed Red Alert.

Sideswipe broke a few speed limits, and traffic laws, getting back to base. Thankfully no cops were around to try and catch him. It said something about his speed when he got back to base a few moments after everyone else warped.

"Is she going to be alright?" Sideswipe looked up at optimus.

"Maybe, Red Alert's working on her right now." The kids, even though they were relatively safe, had sustained injuries through out the adventures, Rad's ribs had been broken from when megatron had held onto him, there had been fractured limbs plenty of times, and that's not to mention various gashes. Of course, due to the awkwardness of trying to give a good enough reason for why the injuries had occured in the first place, They never did take the kids to a human hospital, and Red Alert, being slightly paranoid, had built a very good human 'repair' center. He'd also gotten very good at stiches, which made some of it a bit easier.

Still didn't change the fact humans were fragile. Red Alert worked on her quickly, listening to the heart monitor he'd had Alexis help him set up. Of course, once alexis had pulled 'Susan''s long sleeve shirt off, revealing a black midriff baring workout top underneath, he almost started swearing. The girl was bandaged, not to mention all the bruises, and several old scars. The bullet that had hit her leg had gone clean through, so that was fairly simple work. "Stay with me, girl." He'd learned from various sources that some humans could die from physical shock, not to mention go into a coma. "You'll be alright." The tiny minicon was being held by the minicon they'd just rescued, who was a red-orange color. The children said his name was Blaze. Both were watching him.

"Is she alright?" Sideswipe had stayed next to the door, waiting for Red Alert to exit. The kids had left due to an early curfew, there was school the next day.

"Stable, I gave her some painkillers . . . so she should be alright for now."

"When is she going to wake up?"

"I don't know, humans have different recovery times from us and each other. Maybe tomorrow."

" . . . Can I see her?"

"Yes, just don't mess with anything." Red Alert watched Sideswipe enter the room, and shook his head. For one reason or another Sideswipe was panicked about the girl's well being. _Well, I can't blame him, that girl has some bones that never healed just right, I'm amazed she can fight like that. Humans are very resilient, but . . . her body has too much stress on it already, and she's been injured several times before . . . _Red Alert went to get some energon, he'd start processing information better once his tank was full.

Sideswipe looked down at the human girl. There were more bandages on her and the cut on her face had required stiches. She looked really frail, and thin. The minicon that she had was curled next to her, trying to warm her up. _I hope she wakes up . . . _Very gently, he brushed her hair off her face. She moved alittle, and opened her eyes. "You're okay, you're safe now." _I thought he said she wouldn't wake up?_ her eyes closed, and she went back to sleep. Sideswipe stayed nearby, untill Red Alert sent him away and Optimus ordered him to recharge. _Primus, keep her safe._

Spitfire woke up in a metal room on a large metal table, in pain and very confused. She'd like to correct somepeople when they said people came back to conciousness slowly. She sure didn't. "Wha-"

"You woke up, that's a relief. You've been sleeping for about 18 hours, it's almost sunset on Monday." A large robot stood over her. "I'm Red Alert."

"Susan, Susan Lyndh." Her body ached, and she had trouble focusing on the giant robot.

"How do you feel?"

"Sore." She tried to sit up, but he just put one hand out and stopped her.

"You're ribs were broken, so don't move for a bit." Spitfire reluctantly nodded. "Hold still." There was something so surreal about the moment that she let him give her a shot. "The pain medication should make you tired, so-"

-Spitfire!!- Midnight moved pretty quick to her side. Ignoring the fact he'd just interupted Red Alert.

"Hey, Midnight . . . you okay?"

-No! Midnight terrified! Spitfire started coughing up blood! Spitfire could've died!- And he was back to using her name instead of 'you'. -Then Spitfire sleep for long time! Midnight scared Spitfire never wake up!- He'd grabbed onto her hand. -Don't ever do that again!-

"Sorry, Midnight . . . That was kinda a one time deal . . ." _Yeah, I don't normally get between hunters and their prey. Jeeze, I'm tired . . ._ Spitfire could barely keep her eyes open.

"You'd better go back to sleep, You'll recover quicker." Red Alert had been about to pull Midnight away (he was so tiny!) when Spitfire gripped onto Midnight. " . . . Don't bother her, and If she wakes up, let Longarm know." Midnight just gave a sof beep of agreement, before curling next to the human girl.

"How is she, did she wake up?" Sideswipe appearred almost out of nowhere.

"Yes, she did, then she went back to sleep. I take it the children have gone home?" Red Alert needed some energon. He'd been cross refrencing earth medical books all day on Teletran-1, just so he could make sure she healed right.

"Yeah, about an earth hour ago. Is she going to be okay?"

"Probably. She was lucid enough when she was awake. Don't bother her, Sideswipe." Red Alert let some air out of his intake valves, making the sound equivalent of a human sigh. "Why are you worried about her anyway?"

" . . . Cause . . . it's not right . . ." Sideswipe attempted a few more half sentences before shrugging. "I can't really explain . . ."

_So I noticed. _"Work on the shuttle for a bit, try and keep your core processor occupied, I'll let you know if she wakes up again."

" . . . Okay . . ."

"She'll be fine, Sideswipe." Red Alert watched him leave, then sighed again. _I hope, the girl lost alot of blood and I don't know how long it would take for her body to replace it. She's going to be a bit weak for a bit too. Oh, I need to ask if Lazerbeak was able to videotape the fight, I want to see how the girl fixed it so the wires would go into the boy attacking her. _As Red Alert thought, the base settled into it's normal night activities.

Optimus woke up from recharge, which really wasn't that unusual. _Maybe I should check on whoever is on watch duty, Should be Scavenger. We can talk. _He got up to head to the computer room, passing the med bay as he did.

"Ah . . ." Stopping he glanced at the door. It was a soft, muffled cry. Opening the door, he saw the girl curled up in a ball, whimpering at whatever was in her dream. The tiny minicon was trying to wake her up. Red Alert had disconnected the wires connecting her to the heart monitor, he'd made some wireless tranmitters that sent her vital signs to the monitors.

_A nightmare . . . Why doesn't she wake up? _Very gently he picked her up, holding her close to his Chassis. "Shh, it's okay, little one . . ."

"Nngh . . ." Optimus very gently rubbed her back with one finger, mindful of her rib cage. She was crying in her sleep now.

"Shh, it's okay . . . it's okay little one." _It says something when someone can't escape their nightmares, which is basically, no one helped them recover when they first started, so even if she did wake up, she was alone, so she just stoped waking up . . . _Optimus let out some air, making the sound of a human sigh. "It's okay little one, you can wake up . . . you're safe."

"Is she alright?" Scavenger startled him. "What's wrong?"

"She's having a nightmare, and she's not waking up." Optimus shifted her alittle, so her head was against his chassis. "Been a long time . . ." _Since I comforted a youngling with a nightmare._The last time was when he was helping to move a youth sector to an underground bunker. None of the Younglings could actually sleep at night. So all the warriors on that detail had learned from the femmes how to hold and care for a youngling. It had been interesting to see Cliffjumper, one of his toughest mechs, who would shoot first and ask questions later, comforting a tiny youngling. Some of them had wanted to adopt the younglings after the ordeal, surprisingly. (They had to settle for guarding them, though Optimus noted that several of the mechs left behind were referred to as Dad or Uncle.)

"Looks like she's starting to quiet down." Optimus gently rocked her.

"Yeah . . . She probably won't remember she had a nightmare, either." _I hope this isn't a nightly occurrence. _"What are you doing up?"

"I was in the monitor room. I heard her cry out." Scavenger looked down at the girl.

"Mmm . . ." Spitfire was still sleeping, but she'd stopped twitching and uncurled. The nightmare was over.

"Heavy sleeper . . ." Scavenger looked down at the girl. _That's a lot of bandages . . . I'm impressed with how she fought though. _

"Only because she prefers nightmares to being alone."Optimus sat down. _I've got a feeling she's going to have another one soon. _

"Then you're going to stay up with her?"

"Might as well.She shouldn't be alone."

"I'll see you in the morning." Optimus nodded and focused on holding the fragile human girl so she didn't get hurt. Optimus gently rubbed her back. This would've been easier if she was a transformer youngling. Humans were so fragile, he could kill her if he held her wrong.

"How often does this happen?" He looked down at the tiny minicon.

**Beep Whirrr, Beep click!**

_Why you can't speak cybertronian is beyond me . . ._ "Does this happen every night?"

**Bzap!** That was a no.

"After fights?"

**Beep!** that was a yes.

"Nnnuh!" The girl's nightmares were back. She curled up again. "No! Daddy!"

"Shhh, wake up little one! You're safe, calm down . . ." He kept his voice quiet as much as he could. _So, it's the base form of Post battle trauma, or it's just her supressed fear coming back with a vengence . . . I find out which, and maybe I can help her calm down . . . _

"Daddy! Help me, please! Dad! Don't leave, I'll be good-" She started whimpering again. "Don't hurt me, I'll be good!"

Optimus sighed and rubbed her back, he'd seen too many mechs push their younglings to the limit when the war broke out. War or none, Younglings were too fragile for war. Or surviving on their own. "Come on, dearspark, relax, it's okay, you're safe. It's okay . . ." She was crying again. "Come on, little one, dry your eyes . . .You're okay, dearspark."

"Nngh . . ." Her eyes opened, but it was obvious her mind was still in whatever nightmare or dream she was in.

"It's okay, sweetspark, I've got you, you're safe. Nothing's gonna hurt you here." She just blinked at him blankly, then curled closer to his chassis. "That's it, you're safe, you'll be fine . . ."

"Don't leave me . . . stay . . ." She was trembling.

"I won't, dearspark, you're safe. Nothing will hurt you here." Eventually her eyes closed again, and she stopped crying in her sleep. He stayed with her a few hours longer, before gently putting her back. Midnight curled next to her. "Sweet dreams, dearspark . . ." He was able to recharge after that.

**Well, what do you think? I had trouble with how I was going to get her introduced to the autobots officially, and this was the least . . . well, long. (I was getting frustrated with the way I had been trying to work on earlier, which would've taken more time, and would've been way to dragged out.) Also, I went back and forth between either Optimus or Sideswipe, finally settled on Optimus, comforting her. And I apologise if Optimus and any of the others were a bit OOC in any place, I have trouble writing truly heroic characters (I've already established this with my friends. I can make excellent villans and neutral characters that flirt with both sides. I cannot, for some reason, write a purely good charater, which is what Optimus Prime practically is. Kudos to people who can write heroes. It's a lot easier to write evil.) Sorry there wasn't a real fight beween the Decepticons and Autobots, but that would've lengthened the chapter way too much for me to deal with (I also had trouble with the logistics, so I just had the decepticons watching the humans fight.) **

**Ideas and suggestions welcome! Flames will be used for Popcorn and burning homework! (Maybe not the latter, but a girl can dream!)**


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